In this reading journal I will post the contents of and my thoughts on any books I read, regardless of whether or not I liked it or even finished it.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

FRACTURED

TITLE:
FRACTURED

AUTHOR:
MICKIE B. ASHLING

Pages:
221

Date:
29/04/2014

Grade:
3.5

Details:
A Bay Area Professionals book

Received from Dreamspinner Press

Through Love Romances and More

Own
/ Kindle

The
blurb:

“Roque “Ro” Celdran dreams of a better life, far
away from the hand-to-mouth existence of his migrant worker family. He moves to
San Francisco to study Landscape Design but finds himself short of cash. Tony,
Ro’s identical twin, comes up with a plan to help Ro make ends meet. The BDSM
club Tony frequents is looking for gay men to act as submissives to the
Dommes-in-training. Ro reluctantly takes the job and falls headfirst into a
world he neither understands nor desires.

Lance Roberts is the new doctor at the dental
practice started by Scott Gregory and Robin Kennedy. On the surface, he seems
to have it all: the Mensa IQ, blond and blue-eyed good looks, and the
determination to make it in his competitive field. Underneath lies a frustrated
Dom in search of the perfect sub who can handle his obsessive behavior and
debilitating need for control.

When Ro ends up in Lance’s dental chair, the
last thing either one expects is a physical and mental connection. Ro’s
attraction to “White Bread” never pans out, and Lance’s weakness for Latinos
always leads to a dead end. Could this time be different? What happens between
the two alphas leads to a lot of soul-searching and some surprising
conclusions.”

---------------------------------------------

My thoughts:

I do like a book that starts right in the middle
of the action, and ‘Fractured’ certainly does that. The very first thing the reader
encounters is poor Roque – Ro - Celdran being beating into a pulp not knowing
what has provoked the attack and unable to adequately defend himself.

The beating leaves Ro with severe damage to his
mouth and teeth which brings him to Lance Roberts’ surgery and the free dental
care he so desperately needs. From the moment the two man meet there is an
attraction between them. While both of them try to deny it to themselves for a
while, it isn’t long before they are spending more time together and not much
longer before they act on the irresistible pull.

Both Lance and Ro have issues they’d prefer not
to share. Lance tries to hide his ODC from the man he’s attracted to, afraid
his compulsive need for order will scare the other man off. Conscious that Ro
is as much of an alpha as he is, Lance also decides against sharing his need to
dominate with Ro. Ro has things he’s ashamed of as well and fails to mention
that he has been supplementing his income by working as a submissive in a BDSM
club. He doesn’t believe in BDSM or that it could ever be a viable life-style
or relationship choice and has no interest in ever exploring it further. Ro
also fails to mention his troubled twin brother Tony and the huge chip his has
on his shoulder about being Latino.

The slow emergence of their secrets initially only
brings the two man closer together. But when everything Tony has done comes
back to haunt Ro, the time for secrets is over. And even full disclosure might
not be enough to safe the relationship between these two man who thought they’d
at last found what they’d been looking for all along. Even without the secrets
they are still two dominant males wanting to control their counterpart. A
delicate and surprising balance will have to be found.

There were quite a few things in this book I
really liked. It was refreshing to read a book in which the two main characters
were equally flawed and needed each other to the same extend. The issues
between these two men and the secrets they wanted or needed to keep made
perfect sense and added interest to the story. I also really approved of the
fact that the conflict in this book was not drawn out. I do prefer a story in
which a problem is dealt with rather than allowed to linger on for chapters on
end. And most of all, I loved how these two dominant man managed to find a way
to make their relationship work. I adored the give and take between them, with
both Lance and Ro willing to give themselves to their partner in ways they’d
never considered before.

I did have one issue with this book though. 52% into
the story there’s a huge ‘for-telling’ of what’s to come. I had no objection to
knowing that trouble lay ahead – I had known that since the start of the book.
Nor did it bother me that I those few lines revealed who would be the cause of
the problems – that had been clear from the start as well. I didn’t like that
the exact from the problem would take was spelled out in detail nor the way in
which it was described in those few line. In fact this frustrated me so much that
I had to put the book down and walk away from it and found myself reluctant to pick
it up again. And that was a shame because up until that point I had loved the
story and was really invested in the characters and their journey.

This was an interesting story that would have
been better if it the author had been a little bit stingier with the information
she shared with the reader, or had timed that sharing differently. Overall
though, I loved spending time with Ro and Lance and enjoyed their torturous
road to happiness.

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About Me

My name is Marleen. I'm Dutch but have been living in Ireland for well over 15 years now. I have a passion and love for reading and books. Since early 2008 I have been lucky enough to have been working part time in the library in Bailieborough, Co. Cavan where among other things I run the library reading group.
I will read almost anything that has words in it, and post my thoughts on everything I read in this blog:

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In this blog I write my thoughts on every book I read. Some I will have brought home from the library, some will have been bought while others will have been sent to me for review. I do not get paid for reading and reviewing any books and all opinions are mine and mine alone. Whether a book was borrowed, bought or received will be indicated at the top of every review.

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